Today, I had a short (the shortest ever) meeting with my Ph.D. advisor. Basically, he told me to make some cosmetic changes and submit my dissertation to my committee members. That basically means I’m finished. I just have to complete the oral defense and hope none of the committee members have changes for me. If all goes well, I’ll be Dr. Brian in December. I’ve been working on this since I finished my masters degree in 2001. Although I won’t really be using my Ph.D. in oceanography in the foreseeable future, it willcertainly feel nice to finish. The last couple of years have been marked by a long, slow steady (sometimes 20 minutes a night) effort to finish this particular beast. Now, I feel like the finish line is in sight and I can finally sprint to the finish.

Planned workout

8 minutes warmup

3 miles at 9:15 pace

5 minutes cool down

Actual workout

8 minutes warmup

3 miles at 9:06

8 minutes cool down.

I was getting ready to leave for the gym and I realized it was unseasonably cool outside. So, I just laced up my shoes, grabbed my hat and ran out the front door. I ran a mile to a local park, ran around the lake there (another mile) and then ran home. I was cruising along at 8:30 pace early on, but I slowed down later in the run. I didn’t have any real walking breaks, but there were a few times I had to stop for a few seconds waiting for traffic. I finished strong for the third day in a row, ultimately completing 3 miles in 27:20 – 3 seconds better than yesterday.